Manning loving his cold-weather glove

QB's grip, accuracy have improved

ENGLEWOOD -- Maybe someday, Peyton and The Glove will go down with some of the more famous player-inanimate object partnerships in NFL history.

Johnny Unitas and the hightops. Lester Hayes and stickum. Jim McMahon and the headband. Conrad Dobler and the bite.

Have you seen Peyton Manning's stats in the two games since he started wearing The Glove? They've never been better.

Peyton and The Glove.

"I was surprised to see it," said Broncos cornerback Champ Bailey. "Because you just don't see quarterbacks wear gloves. But honestly, the way he's throwing it? I wouldn't be surprised if we do start seeing more of it. I know when I'm just throwing the ball around, I throw better with a glove on."

An older quarterback, if nowhere near an old dog, Peyton Manning has shown not only determination and toughness during his remarkable comeback season from four neck surgeries. Those characteristics have been well chronicled.

What has been somewhat underplayed is Manning's willingness, at 36 years old and in his 15th NFL season, to learn new tricks. He has adapted to a new town, a new set of coaches and teammates, yes. But Manning is renowned for the regimented routine in his preparation.

The Glove on his right throwing hand is an out-of-the-box departure from routine.

"I certainly don't think I would have had to wear the glove had I not been injured last year," Manning said. "It's part of my injury, some things that I've had to adjust.

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Winter has set in along the Front Range. While there are far more mild spurts in Colorado's winter than the rest of the nation realizes, the temperature for the Broncos' AFC divisional playoff game Saturday against the Baltimore Ravens at Sports Authority Field at Mile High is expected to be 18 degrees at the 2:30 p.m. kickoff.

The Glove is not only about what it does for Manning's grip, but what the weather does to the ball.

They go, ahem, hand in hand.

The colder the weather, the harder and slicker the football. Meanwhile, the most lasting residual effect from Manning's neck surgeries has been the nerve regeneration in the grip of his right throwing hand.

In the past, even before the injury, Manning wasn't always at his best in cold weather. Before his injury, he was 1-3 in postseason games played in cold-weather stadiums at New England (0-2), Baltimore (1-0) and the New York Jets (0-1).

But with the temperature in the 30s for the Broncos' final regular-season game two weeks ago against Kansas City, Manning and The Glove threw for 304 yards and three touchdowns.

The Glove could very well be a game changer for Manning.

"No question about it," said Kurt Warner, a two-time MVP who wore a glove on his passing hand the final three seasons of his career. "I know the reason I did it was the idea of getting a little better grip on the football after the injuries I suffered to my hands. So maybe what happened to Peyton is, 'Hey, if I'm a little bit weaker in the hand and these balls get harder and slicker in the cold weather, this might get me back to normal with everyone else is.'"

Or get back to zero. This is part of Manning's mental routine when a game or a season isn't going so well. Don't try to get it all back at once. Just get back to zero, he says.

Other glovemen

McMahon in the late 1980s to early 1990s was the first quarterback to cause a stir by wearing a glove on his throwing hand. As McMahon's career was winding down, Doug Flutie was bringing the throwing-hand glove down from the Canadian Football League, where it's practiced by many quarterbacks.

Among active NFL quarterbacks, New England's Tom Brady occasionally has worn a glove on his right throwing hand in cold weather, but he usually wears it on his offhand. Pittsburgh's Ben Roethlisberger has been wearing a glove on his throwing hand since his college days at Miami of Ohio.

It was while watching Roethlisberger play on TV that Warner found the glove that aided the second part of his career.

"It took me a long time to work with a glove and really get comfortable with one that I liked," said Warner, who is now a studio analyst for the NFL Network. "Once I did, and even right now, I feel weird throwing without a glove."

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